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The gaming group I'm part of absolutely prefers the 'GM tells the story' style over 'Mutual storytelling', and, after trying AW, FATE, and several others, they want to stick with the old style. They want the GM to do the heavy lifting and just be concerned about how their characters react. Personally, I have no real problem with the 'Mutual storytelling' style, as others in this thread can attest, but I definitely prefer to run in the 'GM tells the story' style.
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Mar 26, 2020 01:30
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I GM so often that when I get to play, I genuinely prefer to just focus on my one PC, yes. It's why I prefer playing in the more conventional style myself.
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Mar 26, 2020 01:34
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I would just like to play, period. On a lighter note, Heart comes out in a week, and I am unreasonably excited.
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Mar 26, 2020 01:34
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Pathfinder 2e better than 1e?
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Mar 26, 2020 01:51
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It manages to trip over that bar, sure.Arivia posted:Correct. So it's a Kevin Crawford/Sine Nomine game, which means it's a very particular thing: it's a sandbox game using Basic/Expert D&D as a base. Now, it's a very well done example of that, but it may not be what people are looking for for their Cthulhu games. There are some things about Trail of Cthulhu that seem a little clunky and inelegant, almost for its own sake, like they wanted to emulate that aspect of BRP. Stuff like "The TN to hit you is 3, unless you have Athletics 8+ and then it's 4." And "We put Health and Stability in the skill list, because you spend skill points on them, though they work differently from everything else." But Esoterrorists/Trail of Cthulhu/Night's Black Agents are all pretty much compatible and I only have to house rule some things from one of them into the other to get what I want.
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Mar 26, 2020 01:53
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grassy gnoll posted:I would just like to play, period. Heart's the Spire dungeon crawler, right?
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Mar 26, 2020 01:55
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Ilor posted:You do not have PMs. Yeah sorry I just lost them for reasons. xiahoudunsa@gmail. I'll probably respond from my real e-mail so expect a long rear end silly kraut name.
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Mar 26, 2020 02:31
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Hit me with an e-mail address and I'll loop you in.
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Covok posted:Pathfinder 2e better than 1e? By far. The only things I can think that it's missing are strict compatibility with 3.5 (obviously) and not having as many options because it doesn't have 10 years of development behind it.
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Mar 26, 2020 02:39
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Night10194 posted:Heart's the Spire dungeon crawler, right? That's the one. It's supposed to be a lot more about the world beyond drow intrigue and insurrection.
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Mar 26, 2020 03:11
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It's a shame the actual Heart stuff is the weakest part of Spire's setting. I'd love a game about playing the gnolls locked in war with the aelfir instead or something.
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Mar 26, 2020 03:16
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I'm thinking about making a new Pokemon TCGO thread since the last one died forever and an age ago. Are there still people interested in the game and/or potentially interested in getting back into it?
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Mar 26, 2020 03:41
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Arivia posted:By far. The only things I can think that it's missing are strict compatibility with 3.5 (obviously) and not having as many options because it doesn't have 10 years of development behind it. you say the first thing and then you say the second thing and it makes me doubt the first thing
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Mar 26, 2020 04:16
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Yawgmoth posted:Who turns that on? I have literally never heard of a single person using this feature. I just want to click my button/type my expression and get a result so I can get back to playing the game. My goblin brain needs the klick klack though 
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Mar 26, 2020 04:43
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Arthil posted:My goblin brain needs the klick klack though I feel a little bad cause I also came here to say I turn that off immediately and found it super annoying and didn't realise people actually used that other than like a thing for streams or something. It also doesn't really work well for stuff thats not d&d or stuff you can do with real dice you can do using the visual dice, where you've got like keep X mechanics or if you want to pair roll stuff (e.g. 2 attacks with their damage dice that are colour matching etc). I feel I could fill a whole book how to roll dice that I assumed literally everyone knew and did but was apparently secret or people didn't like doing it for feels reasons.
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Mar 26, 2020 05:13
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Elfgames posted:you say the first thing and then you say the second thing and it makes me doubt the first thing Huh? Frankly I think breaking compatibility with 3.5 was a good thing, it allowed them to redo their system from the ground up and make it really great in so many ways. And Pathfinder 2e has an okay amount of options and the supplement treadmill is already rolling. I bring both of those up because those were notable positives in some people’s opinions for 1e that don’t apply to 2e is all.
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Mar 26, 2020 05:22
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Xarbala posted:I'll be honest I started following this thread mostly for conversations with hyphz because it's interesting seeing people try to take various non-D&D-based models of roleplaying game, break them down, and communicate their core ideas to someone operating on a completely different set of assumptions. If Hyphz did not exist, we would be well advised to invent them.
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Mar 26, 2020 05:22
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Yawgmoth posted:L5R (at least 4e) has long been the system/setting I've wanted to play with a good group but never been able to find said group for. Every game I've been in with that system has been with GMs who wanted to read us their Rokugan fanfiction and got mad at us for trying to interrupt with dumb things like "player actions", and/or players who were excited to be Named NPC's sword polisher. The most notable of these was the time I cast some spell and my dice went supercritical, and the GM said "no, <bad guy> is too cool to go out like that so he's immune to that spell." I always found that I mostly just ignore the canon and timeline other than suggestions for interesting times and go off the rails completely when I try to GM things. It's funny to have the players convince the Crane Clan Champion to do something as wacky as holding the prince of Rokugan hostage to force the Scorpion Clan to the bargaining table since its leadership can't admit they lost the kid without looking bad.
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Mar 26, 2020 06:40
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Halloween Jack posted:There are some things about Trail of Cthulhu that seem a little clunky and inelegant, almost for its own sake, like they wanted to emulate that aspect of BRP. Stuff like "The TN to hit you is 3, unless you have Athletics 8+ and then it's 4." And "We put Health and Stability in the skill list, because you spend skill points on them, though they work differently from everything else." But Esoterrorists/Trail of Cthulhu/Night's Black Agents are all pretty much compatible and I only have to house rule some things from one of them into the other to get what I want. To tie this and the "good one-on-one RPGs" threads together, I'll say that the Gumshoe One-2-One system is fantastic and does away with a lot of this weird cruft. I've only read Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops, but IMO it takes the best bits of Gumshoe (i.e. its philosophy on designing mysteries and dispensing clues in RPGs) and marries it to an actually engaging system for general actions. It's an exponential improvement.
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Mar 26, 2020 09:40
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Yawgmoth posted:No, they were all at least 25 and (allegedly) been playing RPGs since high school. And the worst part was that it wasn't even a damaging spell, it was a fear effect! I just happened to roll well enough to produce a Fear 10 effect (i.e. the most powerful fear possible) and he didn't like that his bad guy was gonna flee in terror. My experience running L5R is that no matter what my plans are, the players will find a way to overturn everything with an even crazier plan than I was expecting.
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Mar 26, 2020 16:46
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^^^That's my experience running any game ever.SunAndSpring posted:I always found that I mostly just ignore the canon and timeline other than suggestions for interesting times and go off the rails completely when I try to GM things. It's funny to have the players convince the Crane Clan Champion to do something as wacky as holding the prince of Rokugan hostage to force the Scorpion Clan to the bargaining table since its leadership can't admit they lost the kid without looking bad.  I want to cast <spell> on his horse so he can't get away. You can't. Why not? Because he needs to get away so you can investigate him. If you stop him now the game is basically over. So your favorite module is totally ruined by a spell that roughly half the shugenja in the world know how to cast? Well, you're not supposed to be able to attack him because of all the people nearby. But I'm not attacking him, I'm just stopping his movement. Same difference. Look, if he doesn't get away the game ends here, is that what you want? If that's the kind of attitude you have, yes. Fine! You win, game over. Happy?! [shithead GM has left the channel]And then I was booted off that particular server because he was apparently their best GM and I made him quit. Oops!
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Mar 26, 2020 16:57
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Is the 2018 version of L5R any good? I've read iirc 4e but remember it had a lot of really fucky advancement that encouraged very specific types of weird optimization to avoid wasting tons of xp.
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Mar 26, 2020 17:16
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fool of sound posted:Is the 2018 version of L5R any good? I've read iirc 4e but remember it had a lot of really fucky advancement that encouraged very specific types of weird optimization to avoid wasting tons of xp. It is very good*, yes. * Your opinion may vary in direct proportion to your opinion of Fantasy Flight's love of proprietary custom dice.
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Mar 26, 2020 17:29
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fool of sound posted:Is the 2018 version of L5R any good? I've read iirc 4e but remember it had a lot of really fucky advancement that encouraged very specific types of weird optimization to avoid wasting tons of xp. You talking about the Insight system? I've played 4E a lot, and I like it a lot, but also there's a bunch of stuff I've come to dislike over the years. I feel like a 4.5 edition could have been really good. Mostly it's a bunch of schools that are not very good and/or don't fit with their themes, weirdly priced or worded advantages, some stuff like that.
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Mar 26, 2020 17:56
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MonsieurChoc posted:You talking about the Insight system? I think so yeah. You had to spread your points around in fairly specific ways to efficiently increase it, and all your school abilities were keyed off it.
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Mar 26, 2020 18:03
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fool of sound posted:I think so yeah. You had to spread your points around in fairly specific ways to efficiently increase it, and all your school abilities were keyed off it. Not exactly: Raising your stats and raising your skills would raise your Insight, and at certain numbers you'd go up a Rank and get your new Technique/Spell/Whatever. The only really wonky thing is that you need to keep your stats in balance to gain the Insight points: min-max your stats too hard and you won't get Insight. It really doesn't get more specific than that. Or are you talking about the new FFG version? I haven't read that one. It's a pretty interesting system, and I like it better than the straight-up levels on more D&D-influenced games.
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Mar 26, 2020 19:31
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MonsieurChoc posted:You talking about the Insight system?
I'd also change the costs of a ton of advantages and make raising skills/attributes a flat cost, but that's more because you shouldn't be debating between a huge bonus to rolls or a cutesy bit of flavor text for 7xp.
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Mar 26, 2020 19:38
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At least in 4e they don't have a CP/XP split so you don't do the usual white wolf thing of people having wildly different xp totals after character creation.
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Mar 26, 2020 22:11
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Pazio will be having a pdf sale later this week https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6sh5t?Paizo-Update-on-COVID19-from-Lisa-Part-2 If you like really unique settings I cannot recommend Pathfinder Chronicles: City of Strangers strongly enough. My only criticism is that I wish there were more of it. Eclipse Phase has released a FREE pdf that is essentially a summarized world book for the setting. Eclipse Phase: A Time of Eclipse https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/126799/Eclipse-Phase-A-Time-of-Eclipse-ePub--Print
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Mar 26, 2020 22:33
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Helical Nightmares posted:Pazio will be having a pdf sale later this week Lmao I bit the bullet and bought the Gamemastery Guide and Core Rulebook pdfs literally last night. Such is life.
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Mar 26, 2020 23:09
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fool of sound posted:I think so yeah. You had to spread your points around in fairly specific ways to efficiently increase it, and all your school abilities were keyed off it. You can advance your character any way you want to, and flip off the system. You won't gain school ranks if you totally ignore insight, but in play my players usually forgot what their school ability did anyway, it's fine, don't lose any sleep over it. Or you can rigorously only study things your sensei tells you to to be a good boy, and be trusted with your clan's secrets. Your choice!
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Mar 26, 2020 23:55
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Mystic Mongol posted:You can advance your character any way you want to, and flip off the system. You won't gain school ranks if you totally ignore insight, but in play my players usually forgot what their school ability did anyway, it's fine, don't lose any sleep over it. Or you can rigorously only study things your sensei tells you to to be a good boy, and be trusted with your clan's secrets. Your choice! That seems like stupid and bad design to me. You should want to obtain your cool special abilities, and it shouldn't be onerous to do so.
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Mar 27, 2020 00:01
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food court bailiff posted:Lmao I bit the bullet and bought the Gamemastery Guide and Core Rulebook pdfs literally last night. Such is life. Paizo is usually pretty good about this kind of thing, it can’t hurt to email and ask for the discount.
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Mar 27, 2020 00:07
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fool of sound posted:That seems like stupid and bad design to me. You should want to obtain your cool special abilities, and it shouldn't be onerous to do so.
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Mar 27, 2020 00:24
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Yawgmoth posted:[...] In January I joined a fledgling group of resurgent oldschool gamers, a friend of mine, the GM, had begged me for years, and time was usually the divider between us. Now I finally had the time, thus I joined. Described as a veteran of the game we were playing, and somone who in the early years played and wrote with the primary authors, I was somewhat anxious to see the qualities of a classic GM. But all was not to be. I was let down. He guffawed, hmphed, uffed, no eloquence or ability of any sort, the plots were nonsensical and weird, the stories without any importance in the greater scheme, the events often without our input. Why am I saying this? Best GM is a weird thing to describe someone with, but I personally believe that a lot of people play a lot of very bad roleplay who don´t know any better but think its "really good". Just as your guy was. And mine. Which is weird, but human. Still bad roleplay I really could have done without....*sigh*
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Mar 27, 2020 08:45
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Yawgmoth posted:It is stupid and bad design, but "play this game only in the way I would or suffer" is peak John "earn your fun" Wick. You should never be forced to choose between being mechanically functional and mechanically interesting, but man did AEC have a fetish for punishing people who wanted to do anything interesting with their character. Seeing John Wick on Facebook doing a victory lap on how owned nerds were because he daringly suggested Star War Rebel Bad Guys and Empire Good Guys in his stupid GM book was, I think, the last straw for me even contemplating tolerating his vicarious presence any more. That or the time he got into a fight with our local con's Vampire LARP group that was so catastrophic it resulted in a complete restructuring of the convention and an internal memo to never invite him back.
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Mar 27, 2020 08:50
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Yawgmoth posted:
Like, a few times I've had a GM tell the party 'no, guys, the plot is over here' and generally it's been a welcome piece of advice. Like, there was one game I was playing where the party came across an undead infestation and were like "whoa, this is way out of our league, we gotta go back and let our superiors know so they can bring out the big guns" and the GM basically told us "well, you could do that but there'd be no game in it for you if you did". But that's different to a plot that is dependent on the PCs failing to apprehend an NPC who's on screen and trying to escape them. If you put a lever in your game, have a plan for when the PCs pull on it.
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Mar 27, 2020 11:05
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Chaosium put out a SRD and an OGL for Basic Roleplaying. To head off people's IP-related quibbles at the pass: no, Chaosium can't stop you from producing a Call of Cthulhu-alike game based on public domain Mythos stories (which includes, by now, all of Lovecraft), or a Pendragon-alike based on Le Morte d'Arthur. What they can absolutely stop you doing is a) freeriding on their copyright by copy-pasting chunks of the SRD to do that, or b) freeriding on their reputation by using the snazzy new BRP-compatible trademark that abiding by their OGL lets you use (and in fact use of it is a requirement of their OGL). So if you want to do that you can't do it under the BRP OGL, can't use any of the SRD, can't use their compatibility logo, and would likely have issues advertising it as being compatible with BRP or whichever game you were cloning. Thanks in part to Mongoose putting out MRQ under a SRD, Chaosium can't 100% put the genie back in the bottle, and game mechanics are poorly protected anyway, but I think they have played it smart with this. Tying their OGL to a trademark means that there's a recognisable symbol people can associate with third party content, and closing the door on using it for cloning existing Chaosium game unambiguously signals that the thing's meant to be for people making their own games and settings, not for trying to ride on the coattails of existing settings (and they've gone out of their way to offer options for Call of Cthulhu and Runequest on the latter front so far, and I'm sure they'll do one for Pendragon sooner or later). Warthur fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Mar 27, 2020 |
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Mar 27, 2020 11:30
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Honestly from what I've heard that new SRD is so limited in nature that it's basically useless, especially when compared to some of the other D100 systems out there
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Mar 27, 2020 12:11
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fool of sound posted:That seems like stupid and bad design to me. You should want to obtain your cool special abilities, and it shouldn't be onerous to do so. They're not very cool. More specifically, you only get two--one at level one, which improves as you level up, and one at level five, which you're probably not going to get to, honestly. Just take ranks in Subterfuge and prank your rivals, it's more interesting than having a single extra opportunity on your lore checks, or whatever your school skill is.
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Mar 27, 2020 13:58
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I have a few questions to put to the floor - not sure if there are specific threads I've missed, sorry, pretty new to this dusty side of the forum/internet in general. Basically I'm wanting to run some roll20 games for my friends, some of whom are more on the normal person side and probably wouldn't be into anything super complex. I've run Paranoia in person a few times now and everyone has a good time, I keep it fairly rules-lite, so something along those lines; a "story" kind of game rather than a crunchy dungeon crawler. If anyone has any suggestions for a simple system for this, that would be welcome, I'm really just looking for a framework to run a sort of comfy/humorous quarantine game to keep up with my buds and keep them entertained. I know this sounds a bit like I just want to subject them to a specific story I want to tell them or something but that's not the idea, and I know everyone so I know what they're after as well. I would just use Paranoia to be honest but I feel like it loses too much for not being in person. Also I'm trying to get my head around roll20 itself and it's... a bit overwhelming/unintuitive. I don't have a clue what I'm doing with macros, find it a bit hard to picture what the players will see/be able to do, and am just a bit confused as to how it all... Works, turn by turn. The wiki isn't great and I'm not sure what assets I need or how to set it all up with them. I'm completely lost as to running combat and making sure it's orderly and turn-based. Just getting a bit of stage fright I guess, I'm picturing trying it and it turning out to be a disaster where I spend the whole time making everyone wait for 15 minutes to look up wikis and fiddle with menus. I know that's vague but is there any good guide out there for putting together and running baby's first straightforward RPG campaign?
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Mar 27, 2020 14:29
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